With the rapidly increasing dependence on electronic communications and the accompanying efforts to make these communications faster and cheaper, the complexity of designing communications systems is also increasing. For example, available frequency bands, which are regulated by organizations such as the FCC in the USA, are becoming increasingly scarce. Moreover, existing frequency bands are becoming increasingly congested due to the plethora of users and devices in existence. Accordingly, designing devices that can reliably operate in such noisy frequency bands is becoming increasingly difficult and costly. Another example of the complexities facing communication system designers is that making communication devices faster and cheaper often means integrating more functionality into smaller chips and systems. In this regard, although increased integration may lead to lower product cost, it may also greatly increase the amount of effort required for designing such systems. For example, due to variations in fabrication processes integrated systems can exhibit significant differences in performance between lots and even between wafers. Accordingly, ways for tuning and/or characterizing integrated systems are needed in order to provide consistent performance.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.